Marine Salvage, Finds and Towing Disputes

A boater whose engine has failed will accept a line from anyone. What almost nobody does in that moment is establish what the assistance is — and the difference between a tow and a salvage can be the difference between three hundred dollars and a claim measured as a share of the vessel's value.

The three elements of a salvage claim

Salvage requires all three, and the absence of any one defeats the claim:

• Marine peril. The vessel must be in danger. Not necessarily sinking — drifting toward rocks, disabled in a shipping lane, aground on a falling tide, or exposed to worsening weather can all qualify.
• Voluntary service. The salvor must have no pre-existing duty to assist. A crew member, a contracted tug already engaged, or a government rescue service is not a volunteer.
• Success. Something must be saved. The principle is no cure, no pay: an unsuccessful effort earns nothing, however skilled or dangerous.

Peril is the element that decides most disputes, and it is assessed objectively at the time. The assisting party's characterization does not control, and neither does the owner's — a boat that felt safe to its skipper can have been in peril, and a boat that felt alarming can have been in none. Where the disablement followed a collision, the damage itself usually answers the peril question, and the apportionment of fault for the casualty then runs on a separate track from the salvage award.

How the award is calculated

Salvage is not compensation for effort. It is a reward, assessed as a proportion of the value saved, and the factors are long-established:

Because the award tracks value, the same fifteen-minute operation produces radically different figures for a small runabout and a large yacht. Owners find this counterintuitive and it is the central feature of the doctrine: the reward exists to incentivize rescue of valuable property, so it scales with the property.

The claim attaches to the boat

A salvage claim is secured by a maritime lien against the vessel. That has two consequences owners rarely anticipate. The claim can be enforced against the boat itself rather than only against the owner personally, including by arrest of the vessel. And the lien travels with the vessel into new ownership, which is why a buyer's search should cover salvage claims as well as recorded encumbrances — the same diligence that a title and lien search performs.

Rank matters as much as existence. A salvage lien is one of the highest-priority maritime claims and takes precedence over a preferred mortgage recorded against a documented vessel, on the reasoning that without the salvor there would be no collateral left to secure anything. Salvage liens are also ranked against each other in inverse order of time, so the most recent service is paid first — the opposite of the rule that governs recorded interests.

Two practical points follow. A vessel under arrest is released on security rather than on argument: the owner posts a bond or a letter of undertaking in the amount claimed, and the case then proceeds against the security while the boat goes back in the water. And the claim does not last forever. A salvage action carries a limitation period of two years from the date the service was rendered, which is short enough that a salvor who negotiates for eighteen months and then instructs counsel has very little room left.

Turning it into a tow before the line goes on

Towage is a contractual service: an agreed job at an agreed price, with no requirement of peril and no share of value. Converting an assistance into a towage is a matter of agreeing terms first, and the agreement need not be elaborate:

1. Establish on the radio that you are requesting a tow, not salvage assistance.
2. Agree the price or the published rate, and that no salvage claim will be made.
3. Confirm it on a recorded channel or in writing, and note the time.
4. Photograph the conditions — a calm sea and a sheltered position are evidence on the peril question.
5. Sign nothing at sea that you have not read, particularly a form headed with salvage language.

Commercial assistance memberships exist for this purpose and price the certainty. Where conditions are genuinely dangerous, the practical reality is that a salvage will be a salvage regardless — but even then, the terms of engagement discussed before the line is passed shape the argument afterwards.

Finds, wrecks and what cannot be taken

The law of finds — title to the finder — applies only to property genuinely abandoned, with the owner's intent to abandon proven rather than assumed. A modern vessel with a traceable owner is governed by salvage, not finds, and taking components from it is the same conversion risk that applies to a derelict on a shoreline.

Historic wrecks sit under further protection. Sunken sovereign vessels remain the property of their flag state regardless of age, and wrecks within marine sanctuaries or on submerged state lands are protected by statute. Recreational divers recovering objects from an unmarked wreck are frequently committing an offense they have never heard of, and the ignorance is not a defense.